Startup founders describe how they got through the hardest part

If you want to get a tech company off the ground, there are no
hacks, no shortcuts, and no substitutes for hard work and
scrappiness.

That was the message, time and time again, at today's second
annual Hustle Con event in San Francisco. As you might guess from
the name, Hustle Con celebrates the non-technical side of any
tech startup — The pluck and grit that can mean the difference
between a successful start-up and roadkill.

While the details changed from speaker to speaker, the message
was the same: When it comes to getting your first customers, get
ready to roll up your sleeves.

Here are some stories from the morning Business
Insider spent at Hustle Con.

General Assembly

"Focus your early efforts on
building a powerful core of true believers," says Matt Brimer,
who co-founded
General Assembly, an international coworking space and tech
education program with locations in 14 cities.

Brimer says that when General
Assembly was getting off the ground in 2009, New York City's
startup scene was only just getting off the ground. Any founder
he met was put on his email list, Brimer says, and he gave
personal office tours before its first space was even ready just
to make sure people were on board when General Assembly
launched.

Those first startups to use the
space became General Assembly's best assets: When General
Assembly needed funding, instructors for its classes or just some
good old advice, Brimer was able to reach out to that network of
first-generation users.

"If you do well by them,
they'll do right by you," Brimer says.

Nerdwallet

For Nerdwallet, a credit card
comparison site, the path to accumulating users began with
focusing on what it was good at.

Chen did what most startups do,
trying to solicit press and build word-of-mouth. But in 2010, a
mention in Money magazine only turned into $300 in revenue, while
a story in Lifehacker resulted in $5,000. Both were better than
nothing, but neither was great.

That led to some changes. Chen
realized he had to shut down product development, resigning
himself to the fact that for the time being, Nerdwallet would
look as pretty as it ever would.

"You have no idea how horrible
that feels," Chen says.

Instead, Nerdwallet doubled
down on SEO. That didn't bring in a huge amount of users, but
those who came, via Google, were far more likely to open a credit
card.

It wasn't great, Chen said, but as a founder "you better let
stuff burn if you want to do what you have to do."

When the t-shirt service was first starting, Williams
recalls, the company would go all-out on customer service to make
sure everybody was happy.

The time cost was tremendous. But by focusing on those
early users instead of worrying about scaling up, Teespring
created a wave of repeat customers who recommended the service to
friends.

Those first months are precious, Williams stresses. You
can't afford to lose time doing it over and over again, so it's
better to stay in touch with users and figure out what they want.
Otherwise, it's two months later and you're dead.

"In startups, you're kind of living in dog years," Williams
says.

Meanwhile, Thirdlove, a
company that uses a mobile app to measure and deliver more
comfortable lingerie to women, found its own success via hiring a
PR firm that knows how to work with reporters (whoa, meta), says
founder Heidi Zak.

One last thing

Hustle Con is, without a doubt, one of the stranger
conferences this reporter has ever been to. Check out the Hustle
Con "code" below: